Minutes:
The Assistant Director for Housing submitted a report seeking approval to review the staffing structure for the delivery of the Leasehold and Right to Buy (RTB) functions within Housing Services.
The RTB function historically had been delivered by the Council’s legal service. The operating model for processing RTB applications remained unchanged for many years. After a mistake occurred which could have had large financial ramifications for the council a LEAN review was carried out. Since February 2016 the RTB function had been carried out on a temporary basis by the Leasehold Officer with in Housing Services. The funding for additional hours had been met directly by the Housing Revenue Account, when the function was carried out in Legal Services the cost for this work would have been carried out by an internal recharge between the two services.
The RTB process has two clear stages. In the first stage, the application stage, the tenant’s Right to Buy entitlement would be established. The property would then be valued and the tenant would be issued with an offer notice which confirmed the price and discount entitlement.
Historically the first stage would be carried out by the Legal Service who issued forms to the Housing Service to collect data and be returned. This data would then be reviewed in a very labour intensive process. On a trial basis these duties had been added to the existing role of Leasehold Officer, as this role had complimentary duties to the RTB function.
The trial had been successful: duplication had been eliminated and the process was more efficient. In the second quarter of 2017/18 45 RTB notices had been issued, of which 98% were issued within the 28 day required timescale. Over the same period 42 Section 125 notices had been issued within the required 8 week timescale.
In the second stage, the legal stage, the tenant would confirm they wished to proceed and appoint a solicitor to complete the legal transfer of ownership. This process had been retained within Legal Services and delivered by the Property, Procurement and Contracts Legal Executive who incorporated RTB work alongside existing duties. Overall around 4.26 hours per week had been saved in staffing time by resourcing the RTB function in this way.
Since February 2016 there had been a demonstrable increase in the volume of RTB enquiries, applications and sales. For 2017, to the end of September, 117 RTB applications had been received with 74 sales completing compared to 152 applications and 85 sales completing in 2016. It was therefore proposed to increase the establishment of the post by a further 7.24 hours per week and the Leasehold and RTB function to be carried out on a whole time full time equivalent basis. This ensured a telephone or enquiry presence for the whole week and allowed for work to be accommodated more flexibly.
The report proposed that the post of Leasehold Officer be deleted and a new post of Leasehold and Right to Buy Officer be established within Housing Services. The Job Evaluation Panel allocated a Grade 6 to the proposed post, which would be the same as the existing Leasehold Officer.
The financial implications of the proposed changes to the function would add an additional days cost to Housing Service’s salary budget. Based on 2017/18 salary figures this would be an additional £5,890 per annum and the extra cost could be built into the 2018/19 Housing Revenue Account budget.
The human resources implications of the proposal would be the deletion of the Leasehold Officer post, as such the postholder would be ‘at risk’. The postholder would be ring-fenced to apply for the new post of Leasehold and Right to Buy Officer.
*RESOLVED –
1. That the post of Leasehold Officer be deleted and a new post of Leasehold and Right to Buy Officer be established within Housing Services.
2. That the permanent establishment of the Leasehold and Right to Buy officer be increased by an additional 7.24 hours per week to make this a fulltime equivalent post.